1. Greetings to DARK FORTRESS! You did have your latest record out recently and „Ylem“ is actually what I would like to talk about the most if you don’t mind. I understand it must be a little flashy topic these days. How do you feel when the album is released?
Proud, mostly! And rather amused how the album confuses some people. I guess it's a lot to take in when you hear it for the first time.
2. Although the first official release date was set on 25th of Januray, the album had been available on the Internet a bunch of days before. I know it’s a commonly known and unpleasant thing that this is the way it works in musical branch. Still, what do you think about your intellectual property, with all the effort behind it, being posted on some forum one day and shared worldwide with simple mouse-clicks?
This is a rather complex subject. I'm no downloader, I prefer an old-fashioned CD in my hands if I like something. And I gladly support the bands I like by buying their stuff. If you go to the bakery and want some bread, the baker wants something in return also, right?
On the other hand I find it very cool that virtually whatever you want to hear, see or read is available to the whole world with one click. So we have no problems with our songs being on youtube and stuff. It's important that people know we're out there. But if people that claim to be fans start complaining publically why they couldn't rip the album yet before the thing is even out, I get annoyed. The same about journalists that get a promo and immediately put it out on the internet. They don't realize they're digging their own graves, because it's "our" record companies that finance their magazines by their advertisements etc. It was much worse before Eidolon, by the way.
I think in the long run, the whole financial compensation for music and other digitally copyable arts will have to be restructured. I could imagine internet users paying a flatrate, and spreading that money according to the number of downloads and visits, much like it works with TV these days. One thing is clear - the old system is dying.
3. To the content itself! It seems to me that the extreme drive of „Eidolon“ has been replaced with more elaborate structure of particular songs. Colorful guitar work and inventive rhythmic section tells of an extremely mature performance. Do you consider it to be a logical and natural evolution of the band and your musicianship, when rawness and straight aggression fades a little bit from the music while it gains more progressive elements?
Definitely, although I don't see it as one continuous development in this band, more like a pendulum swinging between atmosphere and aggression. But after the blastbeat-overkill of Eidolon it was clear that there were a lot of other things smoldering inside us that wanted to have space to unfold. In that sense, Ylem is a perfect logical step. But don't expect a pop album next! We'll see where our intuitions guide us when the time comes, it's impossible to predict anything right now. This is something I really like about this band, we keep challenging ourselves.
4. Musically the album represents a move towards different direction rather than a total turnover. Anyway, one of the minor changes is incorporation of a clean vocal in “Wraith” song. How do you feel it worked? Didn’t you think of it as a possible stable element of DARK FORTRESS’s music in the future that would be combing both harsh and clean voices? Or that would be just someone else..?
Wraith was planned as a one-off track, and although I'm sure V Santura could be tempted to develop this style further, I think this is maybe not the right band for it. Plus, I can quit the band then, hehe... However, I do like the things I tried with the vocals on Nemesis for example: integrating pitch as an additional melodic element without losing the aggressive sound. I know I'm neither Rob Halford nor Ozzy Osbourne, and my basis as a singer will always be aggressive vocals, since that's the only thing I feel comfortable with. Within that, I do want to take things further with every new thing we do, because the other instruments also keep developing.
5. Could you draw a brief timeline on the period when the material on “Ylem” had been developing?
If Ylem is a meal, then V Santura cooked it, and we others contributed the salad and dessert. Seraph and I had a sketch for Redivider in october 2008, and Nemesis and Silence followed in the winter. Then there was some weeks of suspense - will there be an album by the time summer comes? - until Santura locked himself in his studio and coughed up all his songs between middle of mach and middle of may. I wrote the lyrics in that time also. Evenfall is (in its instrumental version) an old song actually, I made the vocals in the same period like the rest. Recordings were in august and september (with the Triptykon album in between), and Wraith and Redivider got their final shape with the mixes. In october it was all done, and we had even some other half-songs that didn't get finished because we had too much already as it was. Sycamore Trees, the bonus track, was a spontaneous last-minute addition.
6. You’ve earned your respectable place in the scene thanks to your intense live shows as well. Apart from what I’ve assumed about “Ylem” before, the songs still doesn’t lack catchy and striking parts. Do you usually contemplate the way the music would sound on a gig before you go to studio?
I don't think so... although I don't know what goes through Asvargr's head when he writes riffs, because every one of them is a killer live. I'd be curious to know actually! We all work very intuitively, and we have such a large back catalogue of songs that it would be enough to have two or three new songs to play live. At the end it turns out all the new songs would probably work live this time.
7. The title “Ylem” stands for some primal substance that precedes all forms of matter itself and it’s usually being connected with genesis of the universe. That is quite an interesting subject to pick up; very scientific and very abstract, at the same time. Can you tell us how do you personally see this matter of a “creation”?
The human mind has an innate urge to understand life and the universe, the whole big picture. The problem is, we're deranged little post-monkeys crawling around on an irrelevant rock in the middle of a whole lot of nothing, and have no way to ever find out, let alone understand the universe or life as a total. Even if we had live cameras all around the universe, our tiny brains wouldn't have the capacity to understand any big answers they would offer. So cosmology is 99% speculation, and therefore pertains to the realm of fantasy, unless you work at NASA maybe. The same is true for the god-question, is there a creator? And if yes, where did she come from? We're free to invent anything that makes us feel better in our miserable little insect lives, but anything about this that we shout into the world or contemplate in private under the blanket will ever remain just that - basically a fantasy. If you open your eyes, you get surprised how many other "solid facts" are nothing but congealed fantasies.
I personally have my piece with knowing I will not find out any objective truths about this, and use the burning questions as an inspiration and a tool for my imagination, to view my own universe from an imaginary "cosmic" perspective. What you believe becomes reality for you. This - imagination - is the divine spark we have inside, and - besides death itself - the one great gift that makes up for the ridiculous situation we exist in as a species.
8. You have mentioned in some of the latest video interviews one thing that stuck me during the very first time I’ve heard the new album and that is Celtic Frost’s influence! Specific face of your music is beyond question but I’m just curious... Are there any other bands of which you’d say that affect you in a similar way? I have few guesses but I remain silent by now…
We didn't really look towards other bands when we made this album; the influences that are undoubtedly there are subconscious and probably simply derive from our musical tastes. I would name Emperor, Katatonia, Anathema, Opeth, Candlemass and Watain for this album, but that's a pretty random list.
9. You’re going to play in Czech Republic in February again, I’ve seen your last show few months back (with Satyricon, Shining etc.), do you think that this upcoming show will be different? Could you describe little bit what can we expect? More new songs?
For sure, and we're headlining this time, so we can play a full set with a lot of old and new songs. In december, we had to play without V Santura and were cut after four songs. This time you'll see a more complete show and line-up. Also, our three support bands all have a doomy touch this time; the tour package is somewhat of a crossover and should offer a lot of variety. A lot of our songs are quite long and need time to unfold, and we could only show an "emergency set" last time. We're very happy to come back to Prague, the city is a jewel on the European map, and we look forward to bringing even more darkness to you guys.
10. As I’m looking through your discography, you’ve never released live DVD, is this added in your future plans? This could be appreciated by the fans!
So far, there is no concrete plan for that, although I like the idea very much because our concerts are as important to us as the CDs. We're taking a first step this time, we travel with a film maker from Vienna this time who will make a documentary about this tour which will also include live music of course. I'm sure the time for a real concert DVD will come, though I cannot tell yet when.
10. Thanks for the interview, second you’ve done for Mortem zine. And we hope that “Ylem” will take a deserved place all over the world.
Thank you for the enjoyable interview, and see you at the show!
